Latest News

Chicago school cancels 'Christian' haunted house that depicted Pulse nightclub massacre for Halloween

Halloween is one of those interesting holidays that, despite not celebrating anything terribly offensive in itself, nevertheless inevitably drives people to do offensive things.

Most of the time, that offensiveness is limited to tone deaf outfit choices by clueless individuals who haven't got the memo about cultural appropriation.

But somehow, this year, a person calling himself a "licensed minister" used his entertainment company to organise a "Christian" haunted house event at a Chicago elementary school that reportedly depicted, among other things, the Pulse nightclub massacre.

According to Windy City Times, Tyrone Tappler Productions put a call out via Facebook in August for people to take part in recreating the scene: "Club Pulse, Dancers, Victims … CAGED PEOPLE/SCREAMERS, Extras needed trying to escape a cage! … SOUNDS INTERESTING? COME OUT THIS SATURDAY!!!"

Tickets for the event, scheduled to run on Saturday and Sunday nights, were selling on Eventbrite for $10-$20. Tappler tweeted that the school pulled out of the event on Friday evening.

While it beggars belief that anyone could think depicting this mass hate crime would be appropriate for Halloween, it gets worse: the event description suggests the experience was about making moral choices and "facing the consequences of your actions."

Visitors to 'The Room' would walk through 10 rooms, the descriptionstates, in which they were to "encounter individuals who will make choices. The choice is life or death; sin or salvation; heaven or hell."

The Pulse massacre wasn't the only off-colour scene set to be shown in the house. It was also reportedly set to depict a botched abortion, and the Charleston massacre in which nine black Christians were gunned down in a church by 21-year-old white man Dylan Roof.

While the Facebook page for Tyrone Tappler Productions has disappeared, his website says "Tyrone Tappler believes in reaching people in an unconventional way."

An advertisement for 'The Room', a Halloween event that was cancelled after reports it would be depicting the Orlando shooting at Pulse nightclub.

"I yielded to the voice of God, when he told me to write, my first inspirational stage play 'Help Lord, I'm Under Attack!' which depicts the life of Sandra and how she battles with the consequences of her wrong decisions."

Only God knows what consequences lie in store for Tappler after his decision to run a Halloween event that exploits some of the worst mass killings in US history.